British-owned EFL giant Instil Education, best known for its Regent and OISE school brands, may have closed up to 14 of its UK schools, based on the latest British Council list of accredited language centres.
Five of the group’s schools are still trading under their original names, according to the list of summary statements issued on 22 October: OISE Oxford, Regent London, Pilgrims year-round, the year-round young learners centre Newbury Hall and Basil Paterson in Edinburgh.
Two centres have been merged to become “Regent and OISE Cambridge,” while the junior summer schools have been merged as “Pilgrims and OISE Language Centres”. It is not known whether this includes the centre at Stowe, previously accredited as Regent Summer School, which has been dropped from the list.
Other schools in the chain to go from the list are the OISE branches in Bristol, and London and Regent schools in Brighton, Edinburgh and Oxford. Regent at Scanbrit in Bournemouth has also gone, as has Sherbourne Priors, though information on the OISE website suggests that they may be used as summer centres. Central School of English in London, the Edinburgh School of English and Harven in Woking are no longer on the British Council list.
We have tried to contact Instil Education for clarification, but have had no response.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Gazette has noted that 35 UK private language schools and summer operations have been removed from the British Council website.
